KEB Hana Bank said on Tuesday it will open a new overseas branch in Hungary's capital Budapest within the first quarter of this year. One of South Korea's top four commercial lenders, Hana will be the third to make inroads into the Central European country, following Shinhan Bank and Woori Bank. The state-owned Korea Development Bank also operates a local branch there. This marks Hana's first new overseas branch in almost two years, since it set up a Taiwan office in April 2022. H

Industry Jan. 16, 2024

The equity-linked securities fiasco is turning into a reality for South Korean banks as a load of the derivative products tied to the slacking Hong Kong's benchmark Hang Seng China Enterprises Index started maturing this month. As of Friday, around 106.7 billion won ($81.14 million) in principal losses have been confirmed from the sales of the Hong Kong index-tied ELS products sold by the five major Korean commercial banks, according to sources from the financial ring on Sunday. The five ba

Industry Jan. 14, 2024

Kakao Pay, the online payment service of Korean tech giant Kakao Corp., saw exponential growth in its usage by foreign nationals last year, with the volume of monthly transactions by foreigners jumping by 14 times on-year in January. According to the firm on Wednesday, numbers for transactions and monthly foreign users also increased by eight times each over the same period. The company declined to provide further details on the exact figures. The firm has partnered with 12 online payment platfo

Industry Jan. 10, 2024

The leaders of Hana Financial Group and Shinhan Financial Group are headed to the CES 2024, the world's largest consumer technology event slated to open in Las Vegas on Tuesday. Hana Financial Group Chairman Ham Young-joo is taking part in the tech event for his second consecutive year. This year, the Hana chief is reportedly taking with him a team of employees in the artificial intelligence sector, in line with the theme of this year's CES, which seeks to highlight the possibilities o

Industry Jan. 8, 2024

The South Korean financial authorities are launching an official probe into the misselling of equity-linked securities tied to Hong Kong's benchmark index, with massive principal losses set to occur starting this month. On Monday, the Financial Supervisory Service is set to open an on-site investigation over 12 financial institutes suspected of violating rules while selling ELS products tracking the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index. An ELS is a type of fixed-income derivative that pays o

Industry Jan. 7, 2024

The head of South Korea's top financial authority on Thursday lashed out at Taeyoung Engineering & Construction's self-rescue efforts, saying they fell far short of expectations and urging a new plan within the week. Financial Supervisory Service chief Lee Bok-hyun made the comments during his New Year's press conference at the FSS headquarters in Seoul earlier in the day, just a day after the ailing construction firm announced a set of self-rescue plans to overcome a liquidit

Industry Jan. 4, 2024

The total amount in year-end tax settlements submitted by employees of foreign nationality in South Korea reached a record high of 1.19 trillion won ($910 million) last year, the National Tax Service said Wednesday. All wage-earning workers of foreign nationality here, except for day laborers, are required to file their year-end tax settlements, as are those of Korean nationality. Foreign national taxpayers who submitted year-end tax settlements for income attributable to the year 2022 totaled 5

Economy Jan. 3, 2024

The Korean Federation of Community Credit Cooperatives, the nation's primary mutual financial institution, also known as Saemaul Geumgo, held a capacity-building workshop ahead of opening its first branch in Fiji. Ten visitors, including government officials and villagers, from Fiji flew in for the workshop, which was held for 10 days in December at the MG Human Resources Development Institute in Cheonan, South Chungcheong Province. Held as part of the South Korean Interior Ministry's

Industry Jan. 2, 2024

Hundreds of South Korean firms, including tech giant Samsung Electronics, are set to be hit by the newly implemented 15 percent global minimum tax rate. Under the new corporate tax rule that came into effect Monday, multinational enterprises with a consolidated revenue of over 750 million euros ($827 million) are subject to an effective tax rate of 15 percent on their profits in every jurisdiction where they operate. The global minimum corporate tax system was agreed upon by the Organization for

Industry Jan. 2, 2024

Controversy over South Korea's high inheritance tax has resurfaced as the government failed again in its tender offer to sell a 4.7-trillion-won ($3.62 billion) stake in NXC, a holding firm of the nation's largest game developer, Nexon. The open bid, hosted by the Korea Asset Management Corp., to sell the Finance Ministry's 29.3 percent stake, or 852,000 shares, in NXC ended in another failure, according to Kamco's auction site Onbid on Friday, with no offers being made. Th

Industry Jan. 1, 2024

Shinhan Card announced Thursday that its Kazakhstan unit, Shinhan Finance, secured about 31 billion won ($24 million) from Aster, a leading automobile dealer in the Central Asian country, for a new joint venture, becoming the first Korean card company to win investment from an overseas entity. The two companies agreed to set up a joint venture worth 62 billion won to seek synergy in Kazakhstan’s burgeoning microfinance market. Under the partnership, Aster will invest 31 billion won into Sh

Industry Dec. 28, 2023

The ongoing legal risks surrounding Kakao Corp. seem to be eating into subsidiaries' plans for global expansion, with a series of acquisition deals toppled recently. Kakao Mobility's stock purchase deal with German taxi-hailing service provider FreeNow has reportedly fallen through, with the two companies failing to come to a consensus on the final conditions. Kakao Mobility has been seeking to acquire about 80 percent of FreeNow, Europe's largest taxi-hailing platform, and the Ko

Industry Dec. 27, 2023

Posco, South Korea's biggest steelmaker, has swept a local ad awards ceremony with its creative digital campaign that was produced in celebration of its 50th anniversary of its first steel mill. Posco's "Fantasteel" campaign -- which contains the company's achievements in steelmaking technology in Korea over the past 50 years and presents its vision for the next few decades -- grabbed the top honor, the Grand Prix, at the 2023 Korea Digital Advertising Festival on Dec. 1

Industry Dec. 25, 2023

South Korea's financial regulator on Monday said it had imposed its largest ever fine on two Hong Kong-based investment banks for illegally practicing short selling on the domestic stock market. The Financial Services Commission said its Securities and Futures Commission decided during a meeting on Friday to fine the Hong Kong unit of French investment bank BNP Paribas and its securities affiliate operating in Korea as well as HSBC's Hong Kong arm 26.52 billion won ($20.35 million) for

Industry Dec. 25, 2023

The Korean Federation of Community Credit Cooperatives, the nation's primary mutual financial institution, said Thursday that its acting president, Kim In, has been voted as the new chairman. This is the first time that the KFCC has voted its head through a direct election system in the institution's 60-year history. Until now, 350 representatives were selected to indirectly elect the president. Beating eight other candidates, Kim secured the top post by winning 539 votes out of the 1,

Industry Dec. 21, 2023